The internet’s under attack again! This time by a United Nations treaty aimed at online regulation. Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, warned strongly against the suggested measures: “Do not give that up easily. You will regret it. You will hate it, because all that freedom, all that flexibility, you’ll find it shipped away.”

The warning was given at a question-and-answer session at Mobile World Congress 2012; Schmidt was speaking specifically about handing over control of things such as naming and DNS to the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – which, he said, would divide the internet, allowing it to be further broken into pieces regulated in different ways.

Schmidt’s full quote runs:

That would be a disaster… To some, the openness and interoperability is one of the greatest achievements of mankind in our lifetime. Do not give that up easily. You will regret it. You will hate it, because all of a sudden all that freedom, all that flexibility, you’ll find it shipped away for one good reason after another.

I cannot be more emphatic. Be very, very careful about moves which seem logical, but have the effect of balkanising the internet,’ he added, urging everyone to strongly resist the moves.

The new proposals would extend international internet regulation into areas like as cybersecurity, which gets worrying, given differing laws about that sort of thing.The proposals will go to a vote in November at a meeting in Dubai.